Komisarjevsky Denies Role In Killings

NEW HAVEN — — Joshua Komisarjevsky's chilling audio confession, in which he admits sexually assaulting 11-year-old Michaela Petit but denies any involvement with the three murders inside the Petit home, provides the framework for his defense in the capital case.

In the tape-recorded statement, played for the jury on the third and fourth days of his trial in the 2007 Cheshire home invasion case, Komisarjevsky said he took part in the break-in solely for the money.

The taped confession dovetails with the defense lawyers' strategy of distancing Komisarjevsky from his alleged accomplice, Steven Hayes, and of keeping their client from being convicted of a capital crime.

Komisarjevsky admitted that he cut off Michaela's clothes with scissors, performed oral sex on her, ejaculated on her stomach and then took pictures of her with his cellphone. He admitted that he tied up Michaela and her sister, Hayley, 17. He also admitted that he repeatedly beat Dr. William A. Petit Jr., the attack's sole survivor, in the head with a baseball bat.

Komisarjevsky said that when co-defendant Hayes returned from a bank with Petit's wife, Jennifer-Hawke Petit, after forcing her to withdraw $15,000, all he wanted to do was flee.

Hayes, who was tried last year in the case, was convicted and sentenced to death. Komisarjevsky, 31, also faces the death penalty if convicted.

Hayes, said Komisarjevsky, was "worried about DNA and that I'd used his first name."

Komisarjevsky said that he wasn't concerned about DNA because he'd allowed Michaela to take a shower after the sexual assault.

In his statement to police, Komisarjevsky said he told Hayes, "No one's dying here today. ... It's not going to happen."

He said the thought of killing anyone was "unconscionable."

He said Hayes responded, "I'll take care of it."

Komisarjevsky said that a short time later, he discovered that Hayes had strangled Hawke-Petit. He said he knew from his EMT training that she had been strangled and was dead.

At that point, Komisarjevsky said, they realized that Petit had escaped from the basement where they had tied him up.

In his recorded account, Komisarjevsky said Hayes responded by dousing the kitchen with gasoline.

"He can't seriously be contemplating hurting those girls," Komisarjevsky told police he thought at the time.

"I ---- up," Komisarjevsky said in the recording. "I got myself into a horrible situation. … They were compliant. They did everything they were supposed to. Even the mother did everything to a T. ... This wasn't the plan.

"We were supposed to get the money and get out," Komisarjevsky said.

In his confession, Komisarjevsky denied killing anyone, spreading any gasoline or lighting any matches. He ascribed those actions to Hayes.

Komisarjevsky said that as he was screaming for them to flee the house, Hayes ran back upstairs to the girls' bedrooms and came back down with a fourth empty gas bottle.

He said Hayes fumbled with an oversize book of matches, got a match lit on the third try and tossed it on the kitchen floor.

"The room erupted," Komisarjevsky said, adding that he saw the flames shoot down a hallway in the direction of the stairs.

He said he ran into the garage, jumped into the Petits' SUV, and that Hayes climbed into the passenger side.

He said he slammed the car into reverse, backed down the driveway as smoke detectors blared in the house, and crashed into an unmarked police car.

Hayes reached over, grabbed the shifter, and wrenched the car into drive, Komisarjevsky said. The vehicle careened down the street.

Rounding a bend, Komisarjevsky said he saw two Cheshire police cruisers blocking the road. He said he also noticed a police officer pointing a rifle at him.

"I had to get through the police cars. It was the only way out," Komisarjevsky said in the recorded statement.

The car crashed violently into the cruisers. Police surrounded the vehicle and arrested Komisarjevsky and Hayes.

As the SUV was barreling toward the police cruisers, Komisarjevsky said he knew he would spend the rest of his life in prison or die, according to his recorded statement.

The defense contends that Komisarjevsky made his statement under duress. Bansley focused on four hours of questioning that preceded the taping of Komisarjevsky's statement.

Bansley also pressed Vitello for details about what detectives were looking for when they searched the cluttered Cheshire house where Komisarjevsky lived with his parents and daughter. Vitello said the police seized a desktop computer, a laptop computer and some papers. He said they also found a program running on a computer deleting files.